By-polls: Wattoo questions ECP’s role in PML-N’s Punjab sweep

Says province’s ruling party indulged in pre-poll rigging.

LAHORE:

Following the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) exceptionally strong showing in eight by-polls in Punjab, the man especially brought in to deliver a coup de grace for the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the province has lashed out against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Terming Tuesday’s by-polls an example of pre-poll rigging, PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo on Thursday rejected the outcome, saying it raised doubts over the performance of the independent election commission.

Eight by-polls were held in Punjab (and one in Sindh) for nine seats vacated by lawmakers who resigned due to their dual nationalities.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Wattoo claimed that the judicial officers, who had managed the elections in the past, were stopped by the judiciary and the Punjab government this time. These judicial officers were replaced by the ECP’s returning officers, while the provincial government appointed presiding officers from the education, local government and revenue departments, Wattoo said.

He went on to claim that the presiding officers were approached by ministers and high-ups of their concerned departments to give ballot papers to PML-N candidates before the polling began.

Turn-out controversy

Wattoo said that, in the past, a low turnout had been witnessed in the by-elections; this time, however, the turnout surpassed that of general elections.



In the general elections, a high turn-out is experienced only because candidates for national and provincial assembly seats bring voters to polling stations, Watto said. In by-elections, on the other hand, only contenders of one seat, be it provincial or national, bring voters to polling stations. Hence, the low turnout.

He said that, in the recent by-polls, particularly in Punjab, a 20% turnout was witnessed from 9am to 3pm, which increased to 50% in the last hour. He said that this raises questions over the provincial government’s claims of transparency during the by-polls.

Wattoo maintained that the Punjab police arrested PPP candidate Raja Amir’s supporter Chaudhry Ansar Iqbal from PP-129 Sialkot, a day before the polling in the constituency, in this regard.

He said that, although there is no chance of holding general elections under the judiciary, if polls do take place under the watch of judicial officers, the Punjab government would not succeed in rigging the elections.

He said that Parliament has rendered the ECP an independent body; however, the PML-N’s cheap tactics have ‘destroyed’ it.

It is the ECP’s responsibility to avoid such a situation from resurfacing during the general elections, Wattoo maintained. He urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the violation of code of conduct in the recent by-polls, saying that, if it can take a suo moto notice against the Wahida Shah case, it should do the same with the by-polls.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2012.